Multi-processor networks provide one solution to handling the more and more complex applications that are being written. One conventional implementation uses a transputer, which is a specialized microprocessor having on-chip serial links to communicate with other transputers.
The transputer approach assumes there are two communicating processors. If processor A is on a first transputer and a processor B is on a second transputer, and if processor A wants to send processor B a data item, then processor A writes the data item to a specialized memory address in the first transputer. This specialized memory address is connected to a specialized memory address in the second transputer via an uni-directional unbuffered communication channel (there is also a uni-directional return communication channel). Processor A sends the data item and blocks until it gets an acknowledgment from processor B indicating processor B has received the data item. A more detailed explanation can be found in the description for the IMS T805 transputer, titled “32-bit floating-point transputer”, by SGS-Thompson Microelectronics, dated February 1996.
Some of the disadvantages of above transputer approach are: that the transmitting processor A stops execution until the receiving processor B gets the data item; and because there is no buffering, processor B must service the data items at least as fast as processor A sends them. In addition, the communication link between processors is not a register on processor A to a register on processor B dedicated link, but through a shared resource, i.e., the specialized memory address on processor A and specialized memory address on processor B. For example, two registers on processor A may need to share the same specialized memory address, and this increases data transfer time.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an improved scheme for transfer of data to or from the registers in a processor when there is a point-to-point communication link with a source or receiver of data, which overcomes the above-described deficiencies.